asylum to know were ecuador gran's join a sound a little refuge while blasting britain for using blackmail and threats in its desperation to seize the whistleblower. pound for testers pussy riot get their filed in court as a verdict looms of the trial over the conversational mob prayer and russia's major cathedral that grab global attention. plus the un security council withdraw as the international monitoring mission in syria rebels the earplug pledge to step up their fight threaten to join forces with al qaida. the russian all his other opens up in positive territory following on from the gains made in asia overnight rally on wall street despite oil prices taking a day so i mean twenty minutes time for this is going to turn out like.

eleven am in the russian capital this is r t julian assange has got political asylum in ecuador but now no way of getting there britain's gone out of its way to make abundantly clear it would take drastic action to prevent the whistleblower from taking that asylum from an outright denial of safe passage all the way to threats to raid the ecuadorian embassy and take him by force or his or smith who was at the embassy on a day of drama reports. it was the day they've all been waiting for julian assange was holed up in london's ecuadorian embassy for two months and his supporters who turned out to cheer for him rain or shine since his legal battle against extradition to sweden first began more than eighteen months ago also there in large

numbers the police who didn't wait long to make death first arrests on obviously. when the decision came it was the one they wanted. we decided to grant asylum to julian assange on. the. asos called it a significant victory and his mouth was full so. it will automatically encourage the government. but not everyone was pleased the u.k. foreign and commonwealth office called the decision disappointing and foreign secretary william hague said it changed nothing it does not change the fundamentals of the case we will not allow mr assange safe safe passage out of the united kingdom nor is there any legal basis for us to do so hague also denied any suggestion that british police would storm the embassy so for in territory under international law

to arrest a sauce but that's not what ecuador inferred from a letter it says was delivered to the british embassy in quito in response that could or played hardball. when it was no national law could be used in this way in any intrusive way in any diplomatic facilities any place in the world it shouldn't be used to threaten or blackmail the sovereignty of any other country and they called a summit to try to deal with this threat so that this fact doesn't go unpunished is . the scary part the part that i find completely incredible and outrageous is the british threat to actually go. in trying to extract you in the sun july i must say to see british troops surrounding the british police surrounding that embassy was it an act of intimidation that should not be alarmed and is not allowed under saddam or stuck in the middle julian assange who has a new home but no way of getting there tripod can put him in

a big trunk and label him in his diplomatic bag i'm not quite sure whether that would work but otherwise we might see him holed up there for a mixed couple of years who knows until i reach a solution to this impasse if he leaves the embassy he's liable to arrest by the u.k. which insists it must still extradite him to sweden a position that went to accept it or respond to the united kingdom it would that mean possibly breaking relations on a regional level if that happens the bronzing of asylum by june enough songs has been spelled the end of this tale already full of twists and turns in fact it appears to be the beginning of something else with neither the u.k. no ecuador apparently willing to back down it's developing into an ugly diplomatic spats which could affect relations for some time norris may see outside the ecuadorian embassy and up to. britain's threat to door an embassy but a wave of criticism itself is beefing up security and

a number of its ambrosius abroad targeted by protesters in australia a group of demonstrators have occupied a british consulate and the grand barn spokesman for the australian lawyers alliance says they are right to be angry. let's forget about all policies diplomatic community let's forget about all the other saw much of a peripheral because that's what the british would be doing but to look at the legislation of the british government is relying on the really not in addition to stop i think the libyans and. all strangers and within their embassies. this is not on iraq's national security i think i need you try. we can hide here's the minister responsible effective action action at least pass through them all it's just an appalling first half of which this is it's rules move we're doing things the right why in the world criticize any of the governments around the world if i had to resign stick with that i just scratch election and it

would effectively. when it comes to the united states britain microstructure will do whatever it takes to deal with ecuador says a key factor in his decision to offer a refuge to julian a son who was that he may not get a fair trial if he ended up in the us and packing the whistleblower off to america say he is a fourth is the ultimate objective authorities in both britain and sweden ideas maureen a fortnight reports on what could be in it for washington. thus far u.s. officials have not made any public statements but we can presume that a lot of discussion is taking place now behind closed doors while julia saunders mother is calling this a victory for her son many see this as a small defeat for the u.s. and that is because many believe the u.s. was hoping that julian assange would be extradited to sweden so that sweden would subsequently be able to extradite julian assange to the united states we have heard in recent years it's no secret former and current u.s.

government officials equally even julian a songe two are terrorists and that was in the aftermath of releasing cables and memos that were classified that belonged to the u.s. government as a result the integrity of the u.s. government was compromised a lot of secrets were revealed and it painted the u.s. foreign policy in a dark light it's no secret that the administration of u.s. president barack obama has been earning a reputation for waging a war on whistleblowers a fearsome reputation than any of his predecessors many journalists scholars and activists in the u.s. have signed a letter of support for julie the songe one is including naomi wolf she's a journalist and author first of all this is a white house now to a house is obama's and bush's which is systematically overclassifying everything especially wrong doing it specially anything related to what whistleblowers want to

release specially you know torture that even gauged in methods of torture like mafia tactics it's come to this the government same to journalists everywhere in america. we're going to do you and we're going to threaten you and we're we're threatening you with with serious legal penalties like prison time if you do your job when i was speaking with naomi wolf what she wanted to clarify for me and her position is that she sees julia sanji many do as the publisher similar to the new york times chilliness songes the publisher the one that made the information available he is not the leaker she noted why isn't the u.s. government going after the new york times for publishing what wiki leaks published instead the u.s. government it is a presumed is all to me hoping to go after julian songe either way she said that this is this would be a dark day for all journalists in the u.s. if he would be in the custody of america prosecuted held indefinitely or possibly

even face capital punishment. and if you'd like to hear more now me wolf thoughts on julia sanchez predicament or the increasingly belligerent role governments will be showing her full interview here on r t and that's coming up in about twenty minutes time. michael prisoner is an iraq war veteran and a member of the act now to stop war and racism coalition he believes. a reminder of government's double standards. the release of the collateral murder video and the release of the iraq war logs in the afghanistan war logs really did a lot to shift public opinion against the wars and really expose a lot of the reality that people knew and felt was correct but didn't have that that verification people begin to ask questions you know they see it being pursued in such a way and then these people you know they go to ask questions well what about the people who committed the crimes that were exposed in the wiki leaks documents what

about this illegal torture illegal rendition or what about this massive daily killing of innocent civilians all those people when if they've been disciplined one of they've been tried for a crime one of they've been pursued to be put on trial and i think the more that this case is in the public eye the hypocrisy of the u.s. government the british government is on full display for people to see it's true. you're watching on t.v. live from moscow still accounting program and knockout blow for bahrain's opposition as a key activist gets a three year sentence for organizing protests to find out why some experts think the verdict is a sign of paddick and paranoia among the country's rulers. the members of all girl punk band pussy riot finally discover their fate today with a moscow judge said to deliver a verdict in their trial to try to face up to three years behind bars on holy doesn't charges for their car virtual performance and russia's main cathedral peter auer is outside the courthouse. we've entered the endgame of

a trial which is gripped headlines not only here in russia but around the world the three members of the feminine punk collective pussy riot faced three years in jail each for taking part in a demonstration inside russia's main cathedral demonstration took the form of a so-called prayer and which they called on the virgin mary to rid russia of. later on friday the judge will deliver a three pm moscow time and we can also see a sentence handed down as well of the charges of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred noting that the judge in this trial has been given bodyguards as a precaution for her own safety you know this goes back to it at incidents in april of this year in which a previous judge who was involved in this case was threatened in her office by a man with an axe saying it's he wanted these three women on trial released so

these bodyguards have been assigned to the current judge us a precautionary measure now this is a. case which has squished opinion so widely here in russia and the fun of a bit more about that my colleague. looked at some of the background on this case it was a pretty hairy directed virgin mary but it was heard around the world to see why this performance of the christ. outraged song invigorated others and left almost you know when. along with. who condemned the french mob thousands of orthodox believers especially of the radical kind were just short of demanding that women be burned at stake. it was blasphemy desecration it was sacrilege i think they belong to some sectors which conducts the tannic ritual. but their supporters see them differently to the defendants their lawyers and hundreds

of supporters to do. dancing and singing was an artistic way to express the women's disagreement with the government particularly with president putin that's why they say the women ended up on trial and on trend. madonna the red hot chili peppers sting franz ferdinand just some of the celebrities who have voiced their support for punk collective on this point a very limited number of seats inside the court house even a member of british parliament managed to get in to observe and make his own judgment of the state something he just said civilities like you like that but i don't think that they think they're paying for the job they saw it was for the space they saw as. i don't think they were. as part of the our group by now which translates from russian as war this wasn't the first time pussy riot has attracted attention but there's nothing like when you have a participated in one of the group's performances an orgy moskos biology museum

just four days before giving birth because it is said to be the woman seen here becoming a sex act with a frozen chicken in the supermarket both incidents were also meant to be forms of political protest but neither were. the actions of. initially they were forgiven for the best attempts to disturbance i mean the museum the incident in the supermarket. now we just won't use to it but we don't want him to go to jail ever puzzle from playboy for a cover photo shoot and all for to perform along with bjork from of the singer herself and a contract with a record company who believe pussy riot are now worth tens of millions of dollars these are just some of the offers the group has received in the week leading up to the verdict so if their goal was to be heard and to become famous then it's safe to say that with their eyes bearers have been answered in my. let's go. this in

other stories are always available on our web site r t v dot com and here is what's also there for you today paralympics can go disabled parents of athletes are outraged by discriminating rules that stop them sitting was the earth children and will cheer areas. plus terrifying statistics as suicide rates in the u.s. army reach a new peak with an average of more than four thousand people killing themselves every month. international observer mission in conflict torn syria will be scrapped when its mandate expires in three days the decision by the un security council is a disappointment for russia which sees a mission as key to finding a political way out of the war or do this is he going to reports from new york. regretfully for russia we have to see the united nations security council did in fact decide to not prolong the mission the mandate of the observer mission in syria

of the united nations now there were two conditions for this mandate to keep for them to keep functioning on the ground and these were and end to the violence as well as ending the use of heavy weaponry and of course we know that this unfortunately has not occurred as of yet the united nations will however mean team a presence on the ground in a different format this will be a civil mission that they will put in place the details of which are being discussed now russia's position in all of this is quite simple we're sort of the monday is coming to an end we believe that those members of the council who insisted the continue the. commitment to ending course still it is. working towards a political settlement in syria however we're looking forward to the formatting a u.n. presence in damascus. into doing the job it is supposed to do in the light of the new. political process in syria it's important to keep in mind that russia of

course has been calling for a peaceful political process in solving the syrian crisis and this of course comes as we're hearing armed groups on the ground threaten to combine forces with al qaida if the west does not help them out and this would of course be a catastrophic development in the crisis we're hearing from our united nations sources that filling the shoes of kofi anon will be a lot of dark brahimi a seventy eight year old veteran diplomat among his previous titles is the foreign minister of algeria and curiously it's an interesting selection for several reasons first of all we do know that in the past this man has served as u.n. envoy to iraq and afghanistan where of course as we're well aware the conflicts and the violence continue and also his daughter actually a former employee at c.n.n. . is married to a family to a royal member of the jordanian royal family and of course this is important in the in the sense that we know that this is

a country that's been accused of supporting the armed groups on the ground so this is quite an interesting twist we're going to have to wait and see what kind of approach this man takes but we do know that he has already said that he would like a different official title from kofi annan because he doesn't want to be seen as somebody just filling his shoes he believes that kofi annan approach was feel here and he wants a different mandate and a different name so we're going to have to wait and see how this man works in the crisis from now on when he takes the position when a mandate officially expires at the end of this month. russia is inviting members of the syria action group to meet in a new york on friday the meeting will call in international powers to appeal to all of the conflict inside in syria and to violence moscow also wants new ceasefire deadlines to be set both for the government and the opposition political analyst dr marcus papadopoulos however doubts the foreign states with traditional bad which traditionally backed the syrian rebels will persuade them to lay down arms. if you

know the history you see the west and islamic extremism though they don't get on with each other they certainly get into bankruptcy each other when there's a common foe let's have a look at the west and islamic extremism in afghanistan in the 1980's against the soviet army let's see how the west and its leverage stream is i'm trying to get in the ninety's in one thousand nine hundred ninety s. and the same and so in kosovo so this one this one comes a surprise to western politicians that points where it will of course come as a surprise to a domestic audience in the west who were largely being fed a story that the assad government is this genocidal mass murdering machine and the young and the opposition. bystanders won't come as a surprise. parties correspondent inside syria common boyko has more updates first hand analysis and experience on her twitter stream while she's currently

staying in the capital damascus and says the city is highly militarized but with a conflict in syria now lasting for eighteen months people are getting used to it also check out our t.v.'s general stream for more tweets on the developments in syria from our arabic and spanish correspondents there. bahrain's opposition leader in a b. or a job has reacted to a three year prison sentence by the find leave i will never give up his punishment for inciting and taking part in illegal protests was unexpectedly harsh for job has already been in prison since july serving a three months for sending critical tweets about the world family handing out his case sparked a wave of outrage among human rights groups they have repeatedly criticized the government's crackdown on protesters accusing the marquis of violating basic freedoms and even torture honker well

a former lecturer at the university of bahrain thing. there's no light at the end of the tunnel for opposition. what does jail sentence of three years for mr in the bill result indicates is that the bahraini government is increasingly paranoid because three quarters of the bahraini population want the two hundred and twenty nine year monarchy in that they want a democratic republic and are not going to give up on this go that there is no free speech in bahrain that the u.s. navy's fifth fleet is based in bahrain and because of the basing rights in the ports of bahrain and also the tarmac right at the shaikh isa air base the u.s. navy is due by our project is able to board project u.s. military might in the entire middle east and ordered to maintain u.s. fed jimminy in the region now some other stories from around the world.

and miners' strike in south africa turned into a bloodbath after police opened fire on a machete wielding crowd thirty out been killed in the mayhem and security officers tried to disperse a thousand strong gathering the an authorized strike erupted last friday after raw drill operators demanded higher salaries and better working conditions. norway's police chief has resigned after reporting included that the murder of seventy seven people by anders breivik last year could have been prevented the in a pan of inquiry also suggest the police spent an unacceptable amount of time trying to catch the killer findings of the report contradict another document presented by the police which concluded security officers showed no hesitation rather carried out a bombing in oslo and the gun attack on an island summer camp. a ship has been

wrecked off the chilean coast after a huge waves crashed against its halt triggering a risky rescue operation twenty four crew members were airlifted from the vessel by navy helicopters and taken to hospital powerful waves have also wreaked havoc along the coast as it breached the seawall spilling into the streets and disrupting traffic. and time now for a visit dates with katie and katie talk us through the global markets and right now europe takes center stage of course absolutely marina they have been moving and shaking for about twenty minutes or so now i really they take center stage in not just because they're just open but because that's where the sentiments are really affecting all of the global markets at the moment and it's all to the german chancellor angela merkel as she about the european central bank its conditions for helping to reduce the boring costs for indebted countries saying that germany is in

line with the e.c. reason approach to defending the year i cause there's been lots of woes in recent weeks is she with them is it she that's been causing a lot of the tensions are right now we can see the footy and that they have opened up imposed to charity by the same amounts as we check out the euro then see what the common currency is doing just now it is indeed gaining a fraction one twenty three six useful for the trade is favorite pair this is demonstrating. the reaction. to all of the optimism and stability i think is the word for now if we look at the ruble then the russian currency receive this slightly changed is we've also got the russian markets as well they too are managing to gain and pretty them bearing what's happening in asia and also a positive close on wall street as well as despite taking a little bit of a nosedive which we'll see later on as we can see those asian markets indeed most of them rose this friday on positive cues from the u.s.

as i mentioned and also those comments coming from germany's chancellor to ease the eurozone debt worries we also had japan as well the nikkei eight cents of percent a lot of that was because exporters was showing their appreciation for the falling yet and the hopes of them out so we'll move on shall wait and see what wall street is up to the u.s. housing permits they reached the highest level since august two thousand and eight and to put that into perspective for you that was a month before the bankruptcy of believe in brothers wall street also showed their enthusiasm for the support of the your biggest economy germany as well ok i mentioned the oil prices they are poor thing and it's actually for the first time in four days trimly weekly gain and that's all because of speculation that the three month high that we experience yesterday was seen by the markets as an excessive got a bit of correction going on at the moment as you can say now the ukraine has made the first big step to wave itself off of russian gas become tree has drawn

a consortium led by exxon mobil to develop its own gas shell in the black sea and the ten bit into the project is expected to provide ukraine with five bidding cubic meters of gas a year that's around twelve percent of what the country bought from russia last year artie's. explains for us. the biggest gas deal involving foreign investors in the history of silver in ukraine this is how experts have been describing the latest agreement between the ukrainian government and the exxon mobil consortium on development and exploration of the natural gas field in the black sea coast of ukraine the offshore gas field combined with other potential deals which the ukrainian government is now discussing with the british investors within the system i said by john and many stand could in large the natural gas extraction in ukraine in the next twenty years by four times which would make this country all but

independent from the gas imports it's been having from russia currently key if it is on a contract with moscow until twenty nineteen buying russian gas in a certain amount of a certain prize and it's been looking actively for both the discount and lowering the amount of gas that has been buying but so far when the stand negotiations to not brought any success another way that ukraine is trying to implemented to diversify its natural gas resources is getting a loan from the china investment company and there's already been an agreement on that three point six billion dollars on buying you technologies which would allow ukraine to buy less russian gas certainly this raises many concerns among european consumers whether there would be any more disruptions of the russian supplies into the european continent which go through ukraine but both sides in the negotiations have been holding over the past several years have been saying that regardless of how much gas ukraine buys from russia the transit of russian gas through ukraine to

europe will not be happy but will not suffer in any way besides russia is already building several other pipelines to deliver its gas to europe so this should not be a concern according to both countries' governments and both countries' gas monopolies companies. that then there are enough to death about fifty five minutes then the markets will business fina all right definitely looking forward to that katie thank so much indeed for this and of course i'll bring you the headlines very shortly just a few moments of that. you

know sometimes you see a story and it seems so for langley you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm trying hard welcome to the big picture. on. the news today violence is once again flared up the film these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada.